


You Continue

by nymja



Series: Do or Do Not [10]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: AND WE'RE DONE, Epilogue, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 16:38:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5935378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nymja/pseuds/nymja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A good teacher is like a candle — it consumes itself to light the way for others. <br/>--Mustafa Kemal Atatürk</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Continue

**Author's Note:**

> IT'S A WRAP, FOLKS!!! Thank you so much to everyone who's been following this series-- it's been a ride, and a lot of fun, and I just really appreciate people giving attention to a gen fic, it means a lot <333

 

“I’ve been looking for you.”  
  
Rey turns away from the medcenter viewport, one shoulder resting against the glass and her arms folded across her chest. Luke walks slowly to stand beside her, still favoring one of his legs over the other. He turns, to see what his student has been staring at—Ben, lying on a bed, quiet and glaring at nothing. Leia, sitting by his side and holding his limp hand.

“Do you think…?” Rey doesn’t know how to finish the statement.

Luke mimics her pose, watching. Leia says something-

 “I don’t know,” he says honestly.

-Ben’s hand tightens in her grip for the first time.

“But we can try.”

Rey looks at him for a moment, then turns her head back to Ben. After a moment, her shoulders slump and she closes her eyes.

“I’m still mad at him.”

“Me too.”

“So how do we help someone when we’re that _angry,_ Luke? That afraid?”

Ben tilts his head up. His eyes are dark, and pained, and he stares straight at the two of them.

Luke lets out a slow breath. “We continue.”

\--

She leaves after a few moments, desperately needing some space to clear her head. She knows, in her heart, that what she did was the right thing. But her mind still needs some convincing.

The sun is bright, on the other side of Dantooine. Hiding in plain sight is a risky move, but the General has gotten masterful at them. She walks, trailing her fingers through the grass, until she finds a tree that looks suitable enough. Rey’s always liked them, always liked seeing leaves turn different colors.

She sits underneath it, crossing her legs, and lets the Force bring her the calm her thoughts cannot. While in trance, she sees images quickly unfolding: the jungle, her first training session, the first night she spent alone in the sands, the ruins of Ahch-To. The places and experiences she’s had, all bringing her to _here._

“Rey?”

She opens her eyes. The sun is setting, and Finn stands in front of the horizon, staring down at her with concern.

“You okay?”

Rey dips her chin after a moment of thought. “I think so.”

Without a word, she scoots over so Finn can sit next to her under the tree. He leans back, resting against its trunk. “Some week.”

“Yes.”

“So what now? Vacation?”

Rey tilts her head, looking at him. And she thinks about paths, how they’re not always a line. How somethings are chains, but that’s not always a bad thing. Luke’s words from this morning echo in her head—a mantra.  
  
It doesn’t do well to only look back.  
Sometimes you have to continue.

She thinks about the jungle, about her first teacher in the Force—a boy with big ears and a grim expression, who would complain more than anything. Who she had adored, before everything had changed. And how some part of him is still there for her and Luke to find, once they’ve all made enough peace with themselves.

Rey looks to Finn—Finn, who is another spark. Another stubborn, flickering light. And decides that it’s time for her to no longer be just someone’s student.

“Finn?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you try something for me?”

“Whatever you want.”

Rey’s fingers comb through the soil, until she has a handful of pebbles.

“I want you to try stacking these on top of each other.”

He looks at her over the rocks. When they meet each other’s eyes, Rey knows he understands what she means.

\--

“You.”

It’s a flat accusation, one that lacks the bite he had anticipated. Luke takes a few, unsteady steps further into the medcenter, keeping his gaze on his nephew.

“Just me.”

“Where’s Rey.”

“Enjoying the day.”

Ben snorts. Luke settles himself down into the chair beside him.

“I have been informed,” Ben says acerbically, “That I am not to be executed. Yet.”

Luke tilts his head. He’s not sure how to respond to that—‘congratulations’ seems as though it might be inappropriate. He settles on the truth. “I’m glad.”

“How?”

“How, what?”

“How can you not want me dead…” Ben’s fingers curl into the blankets, angry and strained at the knuckles. “I-“

“I know what you’ve done,” Luke whispers. And he will not forget it.

“What do you want from me.” Ben’s defeat is evident in his tone. “You’ve won. What more do you want.”

Luke draws a deep breath through his nose. “…I’ll think on it.”

“Of course you will.” For a moment, it is easy for Luke to see the young teenager on Yavin once more. Surly. Sad.

In pain.

They sit in silence for a few moments. Both of them lost in their own thoughts, in the Force. Ben sits in the center of a turbulence, swirling and ragged. Exhausting.

“Sometimes…” Luke starts, his voice distant—recalling a scene from a long, long time ago.  “Sometimes the Force is too loud. It’s hard to concentrate.” He watches Ben’s profile, his nephew’s gaze set rigidly ahead. “It’s hard to listen.”

“I…” Ben hunches over. His eyes close, and Luke sees the strain he’s under. The burden is of his own making, but he knows that Ben’s at a crossroads for fighting it. “I don’t know where to hear it.”

He nods. “I have a hard time, too,” he agrees softly. “Can I show you something?”

Ben snorts, and no one is more surprised than him when he mutters. “Why not.”

\--

Dantooine is full of ghosts. He walks, the newly grafted skin of his side pulling with every step, as he follows Luke from the medcenter. The grass is tall, an endless field. The sun is orange and blinding. They make a pair—uncle and nephew—as they walk until a tree comes into sight.

Luke stops, folding his arms into his sleeves. And he stops a few feet behind him.

“There was an old master who once said teachers are like candles…” Luke muses, and Ben glowers at his back—he did not leave the hospital for _proverbs_. “…they consume themselves to light the way for others.”

He looks past his uncle, where he sees Rey and FN-2187. She’s standing, slowly demonstrating a handstand. The traitor watches, as she instructs, then mimics.

He thinks of Snoke’s flower garden. The stubborn weeds in the soil, fighting for sunlight.

“No matter what happens, the Jedi will survive—or, at least, what they stood for.” Luke turns, a softness in his eyes. “Because at the end of the day, people are worth saving.”

He swallows, anger in his gut. But he can’t look away, as FN-2187 says something and Rey laughs—the sound of it, the look of her smile, at odds with the lost scavenger in the desert and the Jedi who tore his side.

“What was our first lesson, Ben?”

He turns his attention back to his uncle. And feels something in him break, crack open like a small sieve in a larger dam as he recalls the two words he heard endlessly as a child:

“Keep trying.”

**Author's Note:**

> Again, thank you all for reading!


End file.
